Mended Wings
by OptionalOptions
Summary: This a story following two of my favorite champs from League and how they struggle to make connections with others and unfold a dark plot inside the institute. This is a rework from Rift Romances (basically just fixed the gaps and grammar) PantheonxRiven and DariusxVi with plenty of cameos. Please leave me reviews so i know what you guys like. Feel free to pm me i always reply!
1. Chapter 1

_**Mended Wings**_

_'This match has been going for around 10 minutes now'_, Pantheon figured to himself in his head as he dislodged his spear from the elder lizard's chest, '_and still there has yet to be a satisfying fight that has slaked my thirst for combat. Sure I've slewn many a creature in the jungle that was provided in the Field of Justice known as Summoner's Rift, but I'm aching for a good fight with a skilled opponent, as was the very reason I'm even at the League of Legends.'_ Just as doubts were being to manifest in his mind, he felt the tell-tale chill run down his spine and the feeling of endless void open inside his head. Someone was trying to contact him telepathically.

"_What?_" Pantheon said, with a slight hint of annoyance in his mind-voice.

"_Pantheon, Artisan of War._" Replied the balanced voice of his summoner.

"_Oh. It's __**you**__._" Pantheon sighed.

"_I believe our comrade in the top lane requires assistance. We should-_"

"_You mean __**I **__should._" Pantheon interrupted contemptly.

There was a brief pause before the man responded, "_Right, __**YOU**__ should make __**YOUR**__ way up to him to offer __**YOUR**__ assistance._" His summoner replied with the quaint subtly of sarcasm.

Pantheon smirked from inside his cast iron full helmet, "Why, Hux, I'm not causing you to lose your focus am I?" He taunted, whilst tugging on the mental string in his mind to start the recall procedure to return to his base.

"You couldn't unbalance me if you shoved me off a cliff; and i told you not to call me that. My name is Huxley, Summoner Huxley Rank 22 out of-"

"Yeah yeah, save me the speech oh grand lord of the institute!" Pantheon retorted with heavy sarcasm. As soon as he finished his thought though he felt the line of communication was cut.

Why he was paired with such a pompous, arrogant summoner he couldn't understand,Pantheon thought to himself as he teleported back to the blue side base, '_It's not as though the man was incompetent, far from it._' Pantheon recalled the multitude of training and actual matches that Hux had controlled him in, and the man was actually was very good at utilizing Pantheons skills. '_He just wondered why the guy was always, and he meant always, so damn serious and rigid with his mannerism.'_

"Well that's plenty of thinking for now," he said aloud as reappeared on the blue side fountain. He stared forward and looked over at the large hexagonal structure called the Nexus. It had a giant floating blue crystal, hovering mid-air over it with two giant towers shaped like men in robes holding scepters right in front of the structure itself, ready obliterate anything remotely purple that came near it. That was the objective of the match, destroy the other side's nexus. He turned and looked toward the shopkeeper, a small man only around 4 feet tall, but plump and had a rather large white moustache and beard. Pantheon mentally checked his gold amount: 1,578. "Good," he said aloud as he purchased a badge that read B.F Sword on it. He took the badge and attached it to the inside of his shield, next to the other 3 items he had already obtained. He had a Doran's Blade, Ionian Boots of Lucidity and a Brutalizer. As the badge went into its slot Pantheon felt a noticeable increase in his strength, which caused him to grin menacingly behind his helmet.

Next, he sent a mental message to his teammate in the lane he was going to help as he started his light jog to the lane. '_Garen, be ready. I'm on my way.'_ It was a several seconds before he received a message back. In the Demacian's deep voice he heard: '_Thank you friend, your help is most welcome. I shall be ready when you arrive.'_ Pantheon was actually slightly thrilled to be assisting Garen, for the reason that so far he had not yet seen another champion who had near the same amount of bravery as Garen did. The man was fearless, and was also known for being a fierce fighter at that. '_A good ally to have attained' _he thought inwardly.

Since Pantheon's arrival at the Institute, which wasn't that long ago, he hadn't really tried to make any connections with anyone there other than his lifelong friend Leona. But a little over a week ago, when Pantheon was in the League's weight room he had pulled a muscle in his chest while benching alone. Pantheon had thought himself alone but right before he dropped the tremendous weight on himself none other than the Might of Demacia had lent a hand to help him out. Since then they had been hanging out quite a lot, though mostly at the gym and track (where Garen repeatedly smoked Pantheon in races). Now it was Pantheon's turn to return the favor and give a little help where help was needed.

As he approached the lane from the river he snuck into a nearby bush that granted vision of most of the lane without being seen himself. He peered into the lane and could see that Garen was on left behind the minion wave occasionally picking one off as it got low. When he looked to his right he could just make out the figure of Garen's lane opponent, and what he saw made him have to physically catch his breath. It was women, but unlike any women Pantheon had seen in he many years of battle and travel; she was slenderly built but it still obvious that she was a powerful fighter just from the way she held her stance. She was using a what appeared to be a part of **much** larger blade but was broken, but by far the most stunning thing wasn't her blade with green glowing runes, or her darker than average skin tone, or even her pale white hair that was thrown into a neat bun. It was her eyes, which even though he was probably a good 15 yards away he could still make them out. Bright red, the color of blood. He wondered to himself how they got that way. '_Was it natural? or was it from something else entirely?_ He then realized he was spacing out as he often did and snapped back into focus. '_Why would Garen in all his combat experience and physical prowess need help with this runt? Although there was something... off... about the blade the women wielded'_ It was obviously Noxian forged which meant that she must be as well. Pantheon used to hold most Noxians in a high regard of sorts, meaning that since they strove for being as strong as they could he felt he could relate. But now most Noxians just wanted power over strength and couldn't even tell the difference anymore. The thought enraged Pantheon, as he continued his thoughts the air around him began to churn violently...

* * *

Riven was starting to sweat, it'd been ages since she been able to push Garen out of lane long enough to warrant a trip back to base to get better equipment. His Perseverance was remarkable, he never seemed to tire or wary from the little skirmishes they'd have every now and then. She'd have to kill him, and soon before she became anymore fatigued. '_Good thing I called for backup...'_ She hated the thought of needing to ask for help, it went against everything she was taught went she was in the military. Even worse was she had to ask... him... But the point was she needed the help or she was going to get shut down and she didn't want that at all. But something was off about her Demacian foe, he seemed more attune to what she doing all of sudden. '_Shit. He going to rush me.' _She checked her with jungler to see if he close. He was. '_I'm not letting you get the drop on me this time' _as she positioned herself to appear as though she was just going to take out another minion Garen did exactly what she expected him to do, he was wary at first but saw that she had turned her back partially to him. He charged, sword glowing with a powerful strike waiting to be unleashed. But she wasn't at all unaware as he thought she was, so as soon the blow was dropped onto her she blocked it with a swift rise and deflect of her sword and she had just enough time to land a good swipe across his chest with her Broken Wings but Garen responded with an extremely quick spin and almost took her head off had she not been ready for this. As he reared around for another spinning slash she went deep into her focus and shot out her charged up Ki blast which knocked him off balance which she used to get in the second strike from her process. The two strikes had done considerable damage to the Demacian, obvious from the blood oozing out but he didn't seem to notice. As he regained he balance he thrust sword into the air and shouted "**DEMACIA!**" which seemed to bolster his courage and give him new strength '_great...'_ she thought frustrated with his determination. But she didn't even let him take a step forward because by the time he lowered his sword she had already moved into her third part of the process. She jumped up in the air, did a front flip and brought her sword right down on top of Garen. Fortunately for him she had misjudged the distance he was from her and the blade only nicked his nose drawing a single drop of crimson from it and was slammed violently into the ground erupting with a shockwave that knocked Garen back a few feet toward a bush and onto his back. '_Finally.' _She thought as she moved in for the kill; but something stopped her. A feeling of intense dread came over her as all the hairs on her neck stood up at once and her skin tightened with goose bumps. Instantly her instincts took over and she rolled out of the way down toward the river just as a figure smashed into the ground. The heavily armored man turned and faced her for about a millisecond before leaping into action. '_So this is their jungler, huh? Let's see if he can challenge me._' but just then it dawned on her just how exhausted she was, her knees were wobbly and she was shaking all over. She has numerous cuts all over her arms and face most of which were still bleeding. She was in no condition for this. '_I really wanted this fight...' _

_"Nihla?_'' she asked

"_Yes?_" A fair voiced woman replied breath fully.

"_Gonna need those spells you had prepared," _Riven said hoping her summoner was ready.

"_Of course Miss Riven, they are ready and at your disposal._"

"_You're the best, Nihla._"

The summoner chuckled in her head, "_Thank you, Miss"_

That's it for the chatting now though as the rather large man bore down on her. He did something she was completely unprepared for though, with his left hand he threw his spear at her, she had just barely enough time to feint to the right but it still cut her pretty deep as it whizzed by her ribs and buried itself in the ground. She winced from the pain but realized that that had been a mistake since in that split second he gained too much ground and was now right on top of her. She went to swipe at his spear arm with her sword but he was to close and he simply bashed her with the full force of him sprinting into her with what felt like a half ton shield. This dazed her for a moment but when she regained focus she realized the man had sprinted by her and gotten ahold of his weapon again but now she had a clear shot for her tower, and safety. She dashed for the tower but felt the feeling from before again she turned her head just in time to see the muscular brute leaping the fifteen foot gap she'd just created by using the last of her energy and the spell her summoner called 'Flash'. But here this man was, fearlessly jumping into tower range, was he crazy? As he landed almost on top of her she dodged a few jabs from the spear but as she made a weak attempt to counter attack he used his giant shield to knock away her sword. '_Fuck'. _She turned back to him just in time to receive the blow from the shield as it came back right across her face, knocking her on her back and almost out she was now extremely dazed and could barely see straight but she could make out his shape looming over her. He took a few steps closer, '_that's right, a bit closer_', and as he unknowingly entered tower range she hit him with Ki burst which stunned him long enough for the tower to get a shot off. '_Yes!'_ she thought to herself victoriously. But the feeling was short-lived because right when the ball of energy was going to collide with him, he just raised his shield and took the hit without even flinching. Riven's stomach dropped. He raised the spear to her throat: "You fought well... for a runt." he spoke with cocky sounding voice coupled with what she thought was a grin behind that helmet, a grin that made her stomach turnover, but not in the way that she was going to be sick. '_What the void was that she felt"_ she saw him pull back his arm getting to bury his spear in her chest. She closed her eyes and waited for the sound of metal cutting through her flesh, she had never been afraid of pain and never would be. To her surprise she heard something first: "NOXUS!" she heard from behind her as a second figure just as big as the first slammed into each other. The new one had a red cloak swishing in the wind and a large axe hanging from the right hand, "Darius! It took you long enough!" she called out to him.

"Silence, weakling!" Darius called back straining through the simple sentence as he wrestled with the equally if not better built (in more ways than one) jungler. But there was problem and a big one. Garen was back in the fight now and he looked as though he had healed up a bit. He rushed to his jungler and threw Darius clean off of the other man. Darius was now standing in front of Riven and little to her right, he turned to face her and offered a hand down to her. She took it and he pulled her back onto her feet, although she swayed and almost fell over again but Darius stabilized her. She looked up into his fierce, penetrating gray irises.

"You must be loving this." she said meekly, his hard expression didn't even twitch as he looked down and pulled out a large potion vial with a red elixir in it.

"Drink this, it'll put you back on your feet." he said plainly as he uncorked it and held it up for her to drink, "Otherwise you'll be useless to me in the upcoming battle here." he muttered averting his gaze.

She smiled slightly, '_at least he can be decent when there's a fight at stake_' she thought jokingly. She let him help her drink the elixir and as she finished the last drop she instantly felt ready to fight again. She examined her arms and found that a lot of the cuts had sealed and... That was weird, she could swear that she glowing an ever-so-slight reddish tinge. She picked up her sword and turned to face her opponents.

"I'll slaughter the Demacian." Darius stated plainly, his stare unwavering meeting directly with Garen's only a small distance away. "Take care with the big one," he pointed with his axe, his stare still unbroken, "he is the best of the Rakkor tribe."

'_That explains the extraordinary fighting capabilities'_ She entered her fighting stance and paced into the middle of the lane, Darius close at her side. As soon as she had moved outside of tower range Pantheon had leapt into the air to attempt to knock her down again, but this time she was ready. Right as he was about to collide with her she ducked under him and dashed behind him to what she thought was a blind spot, but as she turned to counterattack she saw him twist around mid-jump and throw his spear at her. She instinctively jumped back to dodge it but instead of landing where she was it landed in front of her original position. '_Dammit… he tricked me' _She cursed herself for even thinking that it would be a one on one fight. She heard the grass crumple behind her, and could feel even before she turned to see the giant sword of Garen, the Might of Demacia, about to slice her in half. She shut her eyes and waited for the paleness of death to overcome her. She heard it coming,

"**JUSTICE!" **but at the same time she heard Darius's customary beheading roar, "**GAH!**" But nothing happened to her; she heard the sound of metal cutting through flesh, but she didn't feel it. She hesitantly opened her eyes and what she saw… what she saw was indescribable. Garen's sword had indeed tasted Noxian blood, but that of Darius' instead of The Exile's. Before her was Darius with Garen's sword piercing straight down into body of the Hand of Noxus from his right shoulder. His had his head turned to the left looking back at Riven, but something other than the slight trickle of blood from his mouth and the sword in the shoulder was giving his face an off look. He had a smile on. Not a big one but just a slight raising of the corners of his mouth, he coughed and some specks of blood were flung out and more streams of blood trickled to his chin.

He chuckled, "Now it's a one on one, good luck." He gave a little wink, and she gave a quizzical look before he vaporized into the blue light she come to be too familiar with during these battles. '_One on one… how?_' But now she could see what he was talking about. Garen lay on his back on the ground in a pool of his own blood, Darius's axe splitting his body in a much similar way that Darius's body was. Then the blue light took him as well.

"AHHHHHH!" Riven heard movement coming toward her fast from behind, she turned to face the battle hardened Pantheon charging straight for her. He thrusted at her with his spear, but he parried and drew across his chest again but he didn't even wince. Blood now saturated the ground, sparkling in the mid-afternoon sun. She went to drop her final blow of Broken Wings on him but he blocked it with his shield and just threw her off about a dozen feet away.

"We're quite evenly matched, wouldn't you say?" She said in the brief pause.

"You could say so yes. A much better fight than I had anticipated. Thank you." He replied, darting toward her.

'_Won't be thanking me for long. Enough of this, it is time._' She now focused all of her remaining energy, the air around swirled and channeled up toward her blade which had begun to glow bright green now. The broken blade, surging with power, suddenly erupted in bright green light, stopping Pantheon in his tracks for a few seconds. When the light subsided a bit and Pantheon could again look upon his foe, he saw the blade was now tripled in length and looked to be completed or rather what it looked like when it was as such. Never the less he resumed his charge, but now the nagging feeling in the back of his mind and begun again '_What is with that sword…_' he kept thinking. She was holding the blade in her right hand and she raised it to be diagonal across her torso up to her left shoulder, all the while it had begun glowing with power again. All at once she swung it outwards at Pantheon and he felt a great and tremendous surge of wind cut against his body and shove him backwards. He couldn't keep his footing against the force and ended up flipping over and toppling to the ground. As he stood up, heavily dazed, he heard the faint noise of footsteps. Now on his feet he looked directly in front of himself just into to perceive the blade aimed at his chest. He quickly raised his shield to block the blow but inside he heard grating noise, like metal upon metal. He also felt a slight pinch in his chest '_Too late'_ he thought and he looked down to find the end of The Exile's sword sprouting from his chest.

"You fought valiantly, but now its-"

"Over? Not even close." He interrupted, as he firmly planted his left foot back and his right foot forward.

"Wha- what are you doing?" she started to take a step back as the air around Pantheon began to swirl with power again.

"This was a good fight." He said mockingly and she thought she could see him smirk under the helmet. Before she could back off she felt several searing wounds being cut into her midsection, when she looked down she could only see a blur of his spear. '_So… fast…_' she thought as the pain overtook her. As she fell she could feel the ground rushing up to meet her, she could just she pantheon fall to his knees in front of her. When she hit the ground she could turn her head to the left to just be able to see Pantheon fall to ground as well, but when his head hit the ground his helmet came off. She only got about seconds worth of a look. But what she could remember was the rugged complexion, the strong, cut jawline, the multitude of scars, and most of all… the eyes. He had piercing, glowing, orange eyes. Then everything went pale…


	2. The Afternoon Before

_I apologize for the large gap of time between chapters, I recently took in my _8 year old_ sister and I've been caring for her. So I want everyone that wanted me to keep posting to know that I love the support and thank you! I also took the time to really review this chapter and check it for errors, but please submit a review of your own. I'd I like to take some time here and give a little background to my story and the information you should know when reading. As per the champions: All champion relationships (other than family) are null and void; I wrote this story imagining Garen in his new visual update and Leona in her Iron Solari skin (when she is in armor that is, but mostly for the hair), everyone else looks normal. I have added or slightly changed some details dealing with some of the champion's mannerisms or something about their preferences. The champion arrival times (in the story) differ from the actual release dates in game. Also the champions aren't to dead set on their factions most of the time, so they can be civil for the most part. (On the not-so-serious side) Pantheon is a badass and Darius is a bro, that's all. Also I'll try to put out a chapter or two every week or so. I'd like to give a shout out to__ Hussain64 and I guess A Bro for the reviews, Thanks guys!_

_**Chapter 2: Complications**_

-2 weeks later-

Pantheon awoke from his slumber to loud banging on his door, and voice just beyond it.

"Pantheon! Wake up already," barked a gruff, deep voice.

Pantheon sat up and ran his hand over his face and his short buzz-cut hair, and let out a long sigh. "Yeah, ok! Just let me get ready." He stood up and dragged himself over to his nightstand and pulled his helmet off of it. Holding it in both hands he stared at intently, even in the dim light of the early morning he could make out every mark and scratch from countless battles and conflicts. He slid it on then slipped into his gym shorts and cut-off t-shirt, which were both colored orange with bronze trimming, yet the shirt was skin tight. He then unlocked and slid open his door to find Garen leaning against the wall next to his doorframe. The Demacian was wearing his normal work-out attire: deep blue basketball shorts with golden trimming and a white t-shirt that hugged his muscles just as tight as Pantheon's shirt does.

Garen pushed himself off the wall and gave Pantheon a slight teasing grin, "Sleeping in are we?" He offered his arm to the Rakkor tribesman who took it up, both men clasping each other by the forearms.

Pantheon chuckled, "At least I don't need to lay off of Morgana's cupcakes," he remarked with a backhanded pat to Garen's abdomen, as they released each other's arms.

"Oh so you found a sense of humor, eh?"

"Might just have found yours," Pantheon said with a light laugh. "So, gym first?"

"Yeah, sounds good." Garen responded as he picked his gym bag off the ground. Pantheon did the same, grabbing his from just inside the door, sliding it shut on the way out and locking it. Garen and he started the walk to the institute's rather overused gym. "So how did your latest match go?"

"Very well, actually. That ogre Trundle is pretty strong, especially in lane, but not strong enough."

"I wasn't really referring to that," Garen said with playful shove, "How was facing Diana? She was the jungler, right? So you had to have gotten ganked a few times."

"I don't really understand what you're getting at…"

"Oh come on! It's not like it's a secret. Everyone knows you two having been sneaking around."

"HA! I know not of what you speak."

"The Void you don't!"

"Alright! Alright. If you beat me in practice today I'll tell you. Deal?"

"Deal." They shook hands, and pushed open the doors to the gym. On the walk to the locker rooms, they noticed a few of their fellow champions doing various workouts around the gym. The Ionian group, consisting of Irelia, Akali, Karma, Shen, and Kennen, were doing circuit training; Tryndamere was at one of the bench press setups lifting a hefty amount, with the almost equally built Graves spotting him. Walking past the running platforms they saw Miss Fortune, as she preferred to be called, strutting on one, and Master Yi was sprinting as fast as he could on another. They reached the locker rooms and proceeded to put their bags into their set lockers. They each grabbed a sweat towel, and proceeded to warm up.

"All I want to know is what you and her have been up to, man." Garen said mid-thigh stretch.

Pantheon sighed, slightly aggravated, "Garen. I said-"

"Yeah I know you said you'd tell me after I win today, but we don't really have anything else to talk about right now. Might as well have some heart-to-heart about women, right?" He gave another playful nudge.

"Well, I guess. How are you and yours?"

"Fiora? Ah, you know…" Garen said with a subtlety of wistfulness.

"Ah, so you ARE still pining over this mystery girl you won't tell me about. If you like her so much why not just go for it? You and Fiora clearly aren't going anywhere, from what you've told me that is."

"Yeah, I suppose so." They had finished they're stretches and were now walking over to the squats bar, "You get the first set." They put about 600 pounds on the bar. "Light day, today?"

"Yeah, still sore from my game yesterday, felt like I was leaping across the map all game." Pantheon said as he started pushing up and down in a routine and steady manner.

"Speaking of which, what is going on with you and Diana." Garen brought the topic back up whilst watching the weights intently, watching for any sign of irregularity.

"Look, Garen…" Pantheon replied between lifts, "I don't have the slightest clue where what we're doing is going, or if it's even going anywhere at all."

"Aha! So you are doing things though." Garen burst out a bit too loud, some of the other champs shot some quick glances.

Pantheon shushed him, "Ok, if I tell you, you have to promise you won't tell anyone. Especially Leona."

"But aren't you two basically blood?"

"Yeah, but if she knew I was…" He looked around and then continued in a slightly quieter voice, "Fucking… Her nemesis, she would probably never talk to me again."

"Damn! You two actually… How was it?"

Pantheon searched for the right word, "Intense. Extremely intense."

"Hahaha!" Resounded the Demacian's signature laugh, "You two must get along famously, then."

Pantheon paused, "You could say that." '_Good thing he can't see my face_' what Pantheon knew in his mind was that his 'relationship' with Diana wasn't exactly… Normal. They fought every time they had one of their secret meet-ups, which normally ended up with them having very, very angry sex. Pantheon loved it. The ferocity of his secret lover was intoxicating to him, or was. He was starting to have second thoughts about his arrangement, ever since he had a certain conversation with Leona a few days ago, he thought back to it as he and Garen changed places:

"_Hey! Pantheon!" his delightful companion of old called out to him from across the courtyard. He looked around in the direction he had heard her voice. Eventually he spied her waving him down from one of the tables outside Morgana's Bakery. He walked over, and sat down opposite her. "It's been awhile you overly muscled wall crusher."_

"_What are talking about? We hungout last week, practically all day that day. And hey! I only broke that wall one time!"_

"_I'm just teasing you." She gave him a playful kick under the table. "But seriously what's new? I've been hearing rumors of new lady that's caught your attention." _

"_Ha! I don't know what you're talking about Sunny."_

"_Hey!" She gave him another playful kick followed by a small grin, "I told you not to call me that… Panty!" she giggled._

"_Hey now! That's not fair."_

"_It totally is. Come on Panty, tellllll meeeee." She begged as she leaned over the table. "I tell you about who I've taken an interest to."_

"_Oh, someone has caught your eye? Impressive."_

"_Don't change the subject."_

"_Well I'd tell you about this girl, if there was one." She eyed him pensively for a second then her expression turned back to its bubbly norm._

"_Alright, but you don't get to hear about my high ranking Demacian." _

"_Oh, please tell me it's not Garen…" _

"_No! Of course not." She replied, Pantheon sighed with relief. "But you'd tell me if you were with someone, wouldn't you?"_

_He hesitated, "Of course!" He flushed under his helmet, he hated lying to that her but he didn't know what else to do._

"Panth!" He snapped out of his memory to Garen calling his name and snapping in his face.

"Huh, what?"

"I asked if you're ready to move over to the benches."

"Oh. Yeah let's go."

"You were out of it, man." Garen said not really expecting a reply, "I'll go first, spot me."

"You got it." They loaded about 500 pounds on the bar.

"Remember, steady reps, don't jerk it."

"Gotcha. So why don't you ever have your helmet off?"

Pantheon rolled his eyes behind his helmet, "We've been over this, I want people to remember me for my actions and I want the last thing my enemies see to be shield and spear; not my face."

"Yeah, I can understand that I guess." He said as he finished his reps. "You're up. How much you want on?"

"Drop 200 extra on it." He said, loading extra plates onto the bar. As he sat down he caught onto an interesting scent. "Hey, Garen. Do you smell that?"

Garen sniffed the air, "No, all I smell is sweat. Not very appealing."

Pantheon continued to sniff, "It's lightly sweet, with a slight crispness of winter. Familiar for some reason."

"Could you be any less of a man?" Garen taunted.

"Could you lift any less than me?" Pantheon retorted, laying on his back and lifting the bar off the rack and doing a few reps. Garen just laughed at the response.-

_**-Moments ago-**_

Riven casually walked by the two boys loading up the bench press. The one on the bench, the one wearing the helmet... she couldn't help but send sideways glances toward him. He was just so muscular and cut. She continued her walk, but when she heard Pantheon talking about a smell she quickly picked up her pace. She reached the end of the treadmills and got on the one next to her friend Vi, The Enforcer of Piltover. ' _Vi always looks so attractive(in her own way), with her bright pink hair, lavender eyes; well built and slim, yet with deep curves_.' but nobody could really compare to sculpted man only a number of meters away from her. His bulging, meaty and glistening chest pumping what appeared to weigh around 700 pounds

"Darling, you seem to be staring." Vi stated teasingly in her odd accent, "You also have something on your bottom lip. It would appear to be your teeth."

Riven snapped out of her daze and gave her a light shove, to which Vi giggled. "I know what I like, ok? It's not like you'd say no to muscles." Riven said coyly.

"Mmm, no I would not." Vi replied as she glanced over at a champion with dark hair and large physique that was curling a rather obscene amount of weight. They then got on adjacent running platforms which worked on some sort of magic that neither understood.

"So how was your game the other day?" Riven asked while picking up her pace.

"Oh. It was interesting, to say the least."

"Who was in the game? I admittedly didn't check that one."

"That's ok, Cupcake was laning with that real cute-looking mute girl Sona. Our mid was that cool robo-chick Orianna, top was the ever-so-pretty Jayce, and I was our jungler. Their team consisted of that mechanized horror Urgot and the ghostly warden Thresh, mid was the insanely crazy hexplosive expert Ziggs. Their jungler was Mr. shady Nocturne, and top they had the dashing Darius." Riven noticed that she stumbled only slightly when his name came up.

"He's kind of cold for your tastes, isn't he?"

"Oh Darling, I'd be willing to bet he's quite warm," Vi said softly.

"What?" Riven asked, having not heard her. But Vi didn't respond, as her mind had apparently gone elsewhere. "Vi? Vi?! VI!"

"Oh, hm. Yes I'm here. What is it, Cottontail?" She stammered, obviously flustered.

Riven blushed at the mention of her nickname, "What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing. You know just having a long week." she strained the word long.

"Sure." Riven said not believing a word of it. Vi had been acting strange lately, and it wasn't her usual strange that came from her being her. Riven and Vi had been friends since Riven had wandered into the league some long time ago. Nobody had wanted to go near her much less befriend her, except Piltover's Enforcer. The third day of Riven's second week at the institute Vi had just walked right up to her whilst she was eating her lunch in the corner of a scarcely populated atrium in a rarely visited wing of the institute. Vi had sat down next to right next to her and pulled out her lunch and started to talking to her as though they'd known each other for years.

_At first neither said anything to the other. They just sat next to each other, eating; Riven would occasionally glance at the taller woman, but for a long time they sat in silence. Until Riven spoke up, "Excuse what are you doing here?" She asked hesitantly._

_Vi calmly put her down her mostly devoured second ham sandwich, "What? Is this entire area reserved for just you?" She said rather loudly and mockingly, looking Riven dead in the eyes._

_Riven's eyes widened and dropped to the ground as she backed away sinking into the ground, "N-no, I j-just was wondering, why y-you'd sit with-"_

_Vi cut her with a rather rough slap on the shoulder and a giggle, "Calm down, Cottontail. I'm just fuckin with ya." _

_Riven looked up to her to see she was grinning, she hesitated then slowly returned the smile. They had sat there for hours just talking about whatever came into their heads: Vi's rough childhood as an orphan, the circumstances surrounding Riven's self induced exile. They had become such good friends that they now lived in the same flat at the institute. Now they were almost inseperable, almost like a family she thought shyly._

"Eh, yo, Cottontail!" Vi called out to her from in front of her platform, "run's over, lets move on."

Riven's mind stumbled back into its own head as she zoned back in, "Yeah.. let's." She said with bright smile, hopping off the platform.

"What's got you so perked up all of sudden, Fluffball?" Vi teased with a light prod to Riven's side.

"Hey that's a new one," she replied dodgingly.

"Hehe you like it? I just thought it up- Hey don't try to distract me! What were you thinking about?" She Riven what she thought was a light shove but turned out to be a little harder than intended. Riven tripped over some weight plates left on the ground, and fell onto her back in the walkway between some benching stations. Her vision was blurred and she had a splitting pain coming from the back of her head; she tried to sit up but fell back onto her back again. At this point all of the champions in the immediate area were staring.

"Ah, shit." She groaned softly, "The back of my head..." She looked up and through the blur she a saw Vi's rather large hand reaching out to help her up. As she took it she noted that it was rather calloused and rough. _Wait... No fucking way... no way in the Void the celestials would let it be-_ She thought as her vision unclouded and she could plainly see the muscular Pantheon pulling her to her feet. When she arrived she was only a few inches from his helmet.

"Ma'am, all you all right?" Pantheon's voice resounded inside her head. She could see the orange glare of his eyes inside the darkness of his helmet but when she tried to look into it but for some reason couldn't even though she was point blank. She then realized that she was staring, blushed, and quickly turned her head, which in turn caused her to almost black out. She tipped forward and fell slightly, Pantheon caught her in his meaty arms and chest. "Whoa, we need to get you to the supports."

"No. No I'm fine," She said catching her breath as took in the feeling of his form, almost falling again from the weakness growing in her knees. _What the hell is this._ "I just need a few moments I'll be fine, thanks." Riven stammered out. She then mustered her strength and pushed Pantheon off her, not meaning to be rude but she could see the dark inside the helmet falter enough for her to make out a playful grin. As soon as the dark faltered the grin diminished and the dark descended back over his face. Riven moved back over to Vi and then proceeded to the locker room, all the while she felt the burn of orange pupils staring her down.

"Fuuuck me that was intense. The hells going on between you two? Are you fucking him?" Vi questioned intensely as soon as they were alone in the locker room.

"What?! No! I'm not like that... I mean- I just-" Riven's words stumbling out. "I don't even know him, I just had a match against him a while ago, that's all."

"Well what the Void happened in that match? Sign me up!" Riven shot Vi a serious look, "Alright, alright. But what did happen?"

"Nothing... I mean we had team fights and such but nothing out of the ord-" Riven's face mirrored her sudden realization of the intense fight she had had that game.

"Ohhh so something did happen! Do tell, Fluffball."

"Well there was this particular fight. I had been fighting Garen and was about to win when Pantheon just dropped out of the sky with enough force that he cracked the ground severely.-" Riven explained the rest of the fight to Vi, "Then right after we killed each other I had the few seconds before the respawn to see his face when his helmet came off."

Hearing that part Vi eyes widened, "What! Nobody has ever seen his face! Well except for Leona, of course. And then there's Diana."

"What about Diana?"

"Well apparently they've been doing a lot of initiations on **and** off the rift."

Riven gave her a puzzled look to which just sighed and said, "They've been fucking. Or something along those lines anyway."

"Oh..." Riven said with slight air of disappointment, "Wait does Leona know?"

"Fuck if I know. I sure as hell wouldn't tell her though, probably cause a major shit storm though."

"Hm, yeah probably..." The two girls then proceeded to shower off and then go to eat to lunch.

* * *

Pantheon wondered what the hell was going on with himself as watched the white-haired mystery girl walk out of the gym. _Well at least that's where the scent came from..._ He couldn't get it out of his head. _What is with that woman? Good fighter, unpredictable, smells nice... wait that's weird... Anyway, I don't why I'm even thinking about those things, _the image of her sleek curves passed through, _Gah! That's what you have Diana for! Speaking of which I should go see her._

"Hey, Panth. What's going on with you and the Noxian?" Garen asked him as they switched workout stations.

"She's an Exile isn't she? Well that doesn't matter cause nothing is going on there."

"Well I guess technically she is, but still. And it definitely seemed like you two had some heat between you."

"And I don't know what you're talking about with this heat shit. Although I'll tell you that I am going to **see **Diana later."

"Ooooh, nice man. Alright enough of this gossip bullshit lets get some lifting done."

"I'm down for that."

Suddenly a rather large shadow that could only belong to an imposing man came over the two. Pantheon turned to see his other friend Darius standing at the base of the shadow. "Weakling." Darius said with a grin, as he extended his arm for a similar hand shake Garen and Pantheon had shared earlier.

"Heh, Darius good to see you, what does a runt like you lift?" Pantheon retorted.

"Funny." Darius chuckled then turned his gaze toward Garen, "Garen." He simply stated.

"Darius."

They stared at each other for about a minute. It was Darius who broke the silence: "How about we let bygones be bygones? I mean you're basically neutral now right?" He stuck out his hand, Garen hesitated and then took it up.

"Yeah I suppose we can." but as he grasped Darius's forearm, Darius pulled him towards himself, with his free around the back of Garen's head holding it next to Darius'.

Pantheon started toward them but Garen's expression said it was fine. He could hear Darius whispering something into Garen's other ear, but he couldn't make out what. Garen's expression had hardened, softened, gone pale and then finally relaxed over the course of the one-sided conversation. Then when the conversation had apparently ended Darius gave him one last firm glare and left with the parting words: "Don't fuck this up, I'm not forgiving. Not that you'd really have to worry about me. See ya for drinks tonight still Panth?"

"Of course man. But we both know Graggy's gonna win, again." They clasped arms and Darius left.

There was a long silence between the two men, where they just stood in place. "What in the fuck was **that**!?" Pantheon burst out, falling back onto a bench.

"Oh uh, nothing." Garen said snapping out of his trance.

"Oh bullshit Garen. Your greatest enemy just walked up to you and said you guys could be 'besties', then whispered what I can only assume were the secrets of life and the universe from the way your face contorted."

Garen silently pondered something for a few seconds in his mind, then: "Alright man. You've straight with me so far so I guess I can tell you. But not here, ill tell you tonight."

"Alright, man." They both sat across from each other, locked eyes. "Lets lift." They said in unision.

**-Later that day-**

Pantheon stood in the shower, arm pushing against the wall whilst he stood under the stream of warm water. He ran hand over his buzzed head and decided it was time to get out. _'Shit to do'. _He turned the water off and toweled dry. He stepped out of the shower and went for his helmet on the sink, only it wasn't there. A millisecond of shock was replaced by a coy grin. '_Early, that's unusual'_. He wrapped his towel around his waist and moved out into his darkened flat. He walked cautiously into the living room and stood in the middle of the room, listening.

…

…

…

Then he heard a faint movement from behind him, instantly whirled around grabbed the much smaller figure by the neck with his left hand and pushed her against the wall with his right pinning their left arm. "Still not quick enough," He mocked getting very close to the women's face.

"Oh fuck you and your enhanced hearing. But hey you're kinda choking me."

"Oh and suddenly you're not into that?" He whispered into her ear biting the lobe gently. He could her drop slightly from the sensation as her knee's weakened and she moaned softly. She freed her arm from his ironclad grasp and flung it around the back of his neck, using it to pull him into a deep kiss. His right hand drifted from the wall to the small of her back, pulling her body into his. His left hand moved from her neck to the back of her neck. Their tongues danced intricately until Pantheon used his left hand to pull back on her hair, warranting a not-so-quiet gasp of surprise and forcing her to expose her neck which he used to his advantage, biting lightly on the soft flesh. At this point her right arm was feeling around his muscular back and her other hand was slowly drifting south.

Then, all of a sudden she pushed him off, walked over to his couch and plopped down, crossing her arms.

Pantheon sighed, "What? What did I do now, Diana?"

"What's going on between you and Leona?"

"What?! Oh for fuck sake.. We've been over this! Nothing! Nothing at all. She's basically my sister."

"Then why did you spend a whole day and night with her last week?" She pushed forward, growing more and more agitated sounding.

"Uh because I enjoy her company and she's fun to be around. And again she's basically family to me, why wouldn't I?"

"Hmph," She grunted, "Ok fine, what about this Noxian I've been hearing about all day?"

"Oh my- I don't even know that girl!"

"So there is a girl!" She yelled.

"What are you even talking about!?"

She got off the couch and somehow appeared right in front of him with her finger on his chest, she yelled again: "You're cheating on me with some bitch that you don't even know; aren't you!"

He jumped slightly when she blinked from the couch to him but retorted at a normal volume, "How could I cheat if we're not even together."

The comment silenced her.

"Look, I don't think I can do this anymore." He said bluntly, "All we do is fight and have sex, but mostly fight. And always about random bullshit, like this. So, I'm calling it quits on.. whatever the Void we had going here."

She didn't say anything, or do anything. She just looked dead in the eyes, with a look that chilled his bones. "All right. If that's what you want." Then she glided over to the door, which Pantheon new was bad sign, she paused long enough to mutter, "You'll regret this." With that she slammed the door and stormed away.

Pantheon just stood in place, staring at the door. Then he plopped down on his couch, and rubbed his face. "Good thing I'm gonna get shitfaced tonight."


End file.
